Skip to main content

Featured Post

2023 - The Year That Was

Places impact you for a variety of reasons. And the same place impacts different people in different ways. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual experiences, where every single person’s experience is unique. And personally, every spiritual experience is unique, the same person can have different deeply spiritual experiences at different places, at different times. This thought has emerged because of my own experiences over the years, but especially so this year, with different and unique experiences at various places I have visited recently. I began this year with a visit to Baroda (Vadodara) with friends. It was meant to be a relaxed trip, a touristy trip, with our sons. We enjoyed ourselves to the hilt, but the highlight of that trip was a visit to the Lakulisha temple at Pavagadh. It was the iconography of the temple that I connected with, and I spent a few hours simply lost in the details of the figures carved around the temple. There was an indefinable connect with
6 comments

Paraphernalia for Indian rituals.. some of them.....

Our first outing of the year was to Jalgaon where we attended a havan and a puja. An auspicious beginning to the new year, wouldn't you say?

Considering that we perform so many rituals ourselves at home, I have always been fascinated by all the paraphernalia that we use for them. I used the opportunity at Jalgaon to click pics, not of the puja itself, which everyone else was doing,  but of the preparations for the puja..........

Here is the puja site.. all ready and prepared....


That's the havan kund.. where the fire will be lit...



Here are the essentials - water, haldi(turmeric), kumkum, chandan...etc. etc. etc...
i love that kamadalu-like vessel with the spout.. Don't know its correct name.... look at the tiny different shaped wooden articles next to it. They are used for the havan for making the offerings...



Fruits and flowers... and the spoons used for the havan... again, sorry, but the names elude me.



The Kalash - the central item....



and finally, the sacred fire....





For those of you who think this is too much, next time, I shall click pics at my mother's place of her puja.. you will be stunned by the number and variety of things she uses!!!


Posted by Picasa
Labels:

Comments

  1. Shrinidhi HandeJanuary 24, 2010 at 1:24 PM

    Good to see the prep. Its also critical to understand significance of each puja, which we never care about

    ReplyDelete
  2. indicaspeciesJanuary 24, 2010 at 7:23 PM

    I thought the Purnakumbha (the earthern pot filled with water with fresh leaves of the mango tree and a coconut placed on the top) is also important.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AartiJanuary 24, 2010 at 9:45 PM

    Am always fascinated by the amt of stuff we need for a simple puja or homam!!

    the number of vessels[ gramma will have me up late at nite, sitting next to the cupoboards, pulling out stainless steel vessels, some of her mom's silver wares and wot nots].. but its something i look fwd to, quite enjoy it!! :)

    and the bells.. small cups... the havan[earlier it was couple of bricks] n sitting platforms[palagais] n so much more!!

    But what i wanna know is why we use them all.. significance... what the point... no one knows that :(

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anuradha ShankarJanuary 24, 2010 at 10:36 PM

    Yes, shrinidhi... very true... we spend hours on pujas, but few of us know the significances... am planning to write a series on the details... dont know when, though!:)

    Special thanks to you Celine.... i hadnt even realise that the last two pics hadnt uploaded properly!!!! so the kalash is there....

    and well, Aarti, as you say, i am the one to get the stuff ready, so am really fascinated by the variety of stuff we use, though i dont really know the exact significance too.... i was hesitant to write what i did know, 'cause i was scared of writing something unverified... so, another post shall follow with the significance of the pujas.......... once my mom and m-i-l are back, so i can cross check with them :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. jayasreeJanuary 25, 2010 at 3:23 PM

    Nice to see another way of pooja arrangement different from what we follow.

    the vessel with the spout is called Kindi. In olden days, in many of the Kerala homes, water filled kindis will be kept near the entrance for the visitors to wash their leg before entering.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anuradha ShankarJanuary 26, 2010 at 10:21 AM

    Thanks Jayasree..yes,i did wonder if it was what we call a 'gindi'.. but the one i have looks somewhat different, except the spout!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nuri Leigh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .April 3, 2010 at 8:31 PM

    It is nice to see pictures and read bits about your culture. Your pictures are great, but mostly now I would like to read more about the pictures.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for stopping by. Please leave a comment for me so that I will know you have been here....

Popular posts from this blog

Gokarna Part II – The Five Lingams

We continued our Gokarna trip by visiting four other Shiva temples in the vicinity, all connected to the same story of Gokarna. The story of Gokarna mentions the Mahabaleshwara Lingam as the one brought from Kailas by Ravana, and kept at this place on the ground by Ganesha. (See my earlier post- Gokarna – Pilgrimage and Pleasure). However, the story does not end here. It is believed that, in his anger, Ravana flung aside the materials which covered the lingam- the casket, its lid, the string around the lingam, and the cloth covering it. All these items became lingams as soon as they touched the ground. These four lingams, along with the main Mahabaleshwara lingam are collectively called the ‘ Panchalingams’ . These are: Mahabaleshwara – the main lingam Sajjeshwar – the casket carrying the lingam. This temple is about 35 Kms from Karwar, and is a 2 hour drive from Gokarna. Dhareshwar – the string covering the lingam. This temple is on NH17, about 45 Kms south of Gokarna. Gunavanteshw
9 comments
Read more

Review of Executive Lounges at New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS)

During my recent trip to Uttarakhand , I was faced with a problem I had never encountered before. We were passing through Delhi, but we had hardly any time in the city. On earlier visits when I have had to change trains/flights at Delhi, I have always arrived in the morning and left again at night, visiting relatives in between. This time, I was arriving in the city at night, and leaving again early in the morning. There was hardly any time to visit people. I would only have a couple of hours with them before I’d have to leave again. For the first time, we considered booking a hotel, but there again, we were hesitant about the actual hotels, the costs involved, and the logistics of getting from the airport to the railway station and then back again from the station to the airport.  That’s when we remembered reading something about a corporate-managed lounge at Delhi station. We soon figured out that we could book online and pay by the hour. Besides, we also learnt that there wasn’t ju
1 comment
Read more

Rama Temple, Gokarna

To my right , the waves rush to the shore, eager to merge with the sand. To my left, the same waves crash against the rocks, their spray diverting my reverie as I ponder over the beauty of nature, and wonder what first brought people here. Was it this beauty that encouraged them to build a temple here, or was it the fresh, sweet spring water flowing from the hill here that made this place special? No matter what the reason, I am glad my auto driver brought me here. We are at the Rama temple in Gokarna, just a few minutes away from the Mahabaleshwara Temple, yet offering so different a perspective.
3 comments
Read more